Robert Kubica threatened to pull out of Rally Italy if event organisers did not give him a bigger gap to the cars ahead of his Citroen in the running order.

The Pole's ultimatum came at the end of the opening day when, despite building a one-minute lead at the front of the WRC 2 category, he was ready to walk away from the event.

Only the World Rally Car drivers were given a two-minute gap on the Olbia-based event and Kubica was furious at being forced to stop in the middle of stages due to the dust as he ran one minute behind his WRC 2 rivals.

"We have to review this," said Kubica. "If I had to come back with a one-minute gap then I would not come.

"There is no point to risk your life for this - it's that simple.

"When I was doing F1, the FIA did a great job with safety, but what I have seen here is disappointing, it looks like nobody cares about the drivers.

"But it's not just the drivers, when we were 20 seconds behind [Sepp] Wiegand on the road, we have people standing in the road because they did not expect us and could not see us.

We have to review this sooner rather than later, because something can happen if we don't react."

Asked about the decision to run one-minute gaps, the rally organisers said they acted within the sport's regulations.